We’re famous y’all!
SLO County’s very own keyboard warrior, elected official and District Attorney Dan Dow, has made statewide headlines for his recent escapades on X—formerly known as Twitter, now known as Elon Musk’s personal fiefdom and a haven for warriors like Dow.
We’re so proud!
I’m wondering what it’s going to take for someone viable to run against this right-wingnut who takes the art of unprofessional conduct to new levels. Dow leans into the farthest end of the conservative spectrum on his social media feeds, and we’re supposed to believe that the SLO County justice system he spearheads will treat everyone equally?
His posts about the mayor-elect of New York City are questionable at best and outright Islamophobic at face value. At worst, it’s a clarion call to America’s worst tendencies—to demonize those who don’t look like us or act like us and to act upon those feelings.
The Tribune “broke” the story, if you can break a story about social media posts that are already on the internet for the public to see, and the LA Times picked up the thread, as did SF Gate. Isn’t it wild that the internet becomes news on the internet? It’s so Meta (See what I did there?).
Dow reposted tweets (Are they still called that?) with images of the Twin Towers in flames on 9/11 accompanied by criticism of Zohran Mamdani, who will become New York’s first Muslim mayor. Hmm. Interesting choice, Dow. You don’t even need to read between the lines to call the posts anti-Muslim; you don’t even need to know who the people who wrote the posts are to call them Islamophobic. It’s obvious.
But Dow insists that reposts aren’t endorsements (um, yes they are) and that he was simply criticizing Mamdani’s political affiliation as a democratic socialist. Yes, and … he was also calling attention to terrorism associated with Muslim extremists … and Mamdani is Muslim. It’s not a stretch to catch the insinuation.
We see you, Dow.
Even your friends see you, although they’re more willing to give you the benefit of the doubt than I am. I wonder how the California Bar Association feels about his racist inferences? Could they rise to the level of ethical violations or official misconduct?
His willingness to express problematic views on social media and in public (hello, anti-trans statements at the Turning Point vigil just a few weeks ago) is a problem and it paints the work his office does with a biased brush.
The appearance of a conflict of interest is just as damning as an actual conflict of interest—which is why we have a new law requiring sheriff-coroner’s offices in the state (like ours) to get independent autopsies of in-custody deaths. That way personal interest doesn’t get in the way of reality.
Dow’s personal views have already gotten him into trouble. Lest we forget what happened with Tianna Arata in 2020, when his office was removed from prosecuting the case against her after his reelection campaign emailed supporters after his office charged Arata with 13 misdemeanors for her part in local Black Lives Matter protests.
“He really needs your financial support so that he can keep leading the fight in SLO County against the wacky defund the police movement and anarchist groups that are trying to undermine the rule of law and public safety,” the email said.
Whatever happened to that case? The charges were dropped. Wacky.
Dow should focus on real public safety threats rather than social commentary. That’s what he was elected to do.
You know who else is into Turning Point? Vanessa Rozo, an Oceano business owner who decided it was time to run for office. With 20 years of experience as a N-Hance Wood Refinishing franchise owner, she figures her skill set is just what the SLO County Clerk-Recorder’s Office needs in a leader.
“This will be California’s turning point!” she wrote on her campaign’s Instagram page under a photo with Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who’s a conservative candidate running for governor in 2026. Dow endorsed him, no surprises there.
She also was very proud of how many signatures the local Turning Point chapter got during Cal Poly’s Week of Welcome: 100! Who says universities are liberal?
As far as experience with running elections, I checked her résumé, and she ain’t got none. While she does have some ideas on how the county could do better, she didn’t check to see what the county was actually doing before she made them her campaign talking points.
Current Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano was pretty blunt. This job is not “one where you can ‘learn on the job.’ There is no training program for this role—when you are elected, you are it,” she said. “Without the background and understanding of election law, public records, and administrative operations, the community’s trust would be at risk.”
Cano doesn’t post partisan bullshit on her social media accounts. She’s professional, knows her role, and stays in her lane, because that’s what we elected her to do. We elected her to run elections, track marriage licenses, and record land ownership in the county. No need to turn our Clerk-Recorder’s Office into a political talking point.
We’ve got enough of that going on around here. ∆
The Shredder is full of partisan bullshit. Send special requests to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Nov 13-23, 2025.
The Shredder misunderstands the role of a District Attorney when he expects them to act as “neutrals”, instead of as advocates for a particular point of view, the interests of the people in suppressing crime. A judge, or an election official, is a neutral, while a DA is a combatant. Tianna Arata instigated an illegal shutdown of the freeway which resulted in violence, and prevented the public from exercising their right to travel. The fact that a sympathetic judge found that Dow felt a little too strongly about opposing this crime, and turned the prosecution over to a liberal Attorney General for dismissal, is hardly conclusive. District Attorneys frequently tout their success in fighting crime, including specific crimes. It is just politics.
As for Mamdani, obviously everyone is entitled to be judged on their own personal merits, rather than upon their membership in a group, and a smear against Muslims would be wrong. However, Mamdani as been a politically active in the dispute over the Gaza war, Hamas and the existence of Israel, and his sentiments are fair game for comment. The fighting in that region has been widely characterized by many of the Islamic fighters as a religious war, or jihad, and the 9/11 attack on the US was widely declared by those who support the attackers to be part of this war. Mr. Mamdani’s activism in that area is fair comment in a political race in the city which suffered one of the attacks.
How much easier it must be to sit at home, sip wine, work on Vespa scooters, and write small columns ripping on our county’s District Attorney than to do what our District Attorney has. Namely, honorably serve our nation as an Army Colonel, put himself in harm’s way on multiple overseas assignments as such, sacrificing time he could have spent at home with his loved ones here on the coast, and just as importantly, manage our county’s District Attorney’s office. If The Shredder doesn’t know what public service means, this is it. With his law license, surely Mr. Dow could have worked in the private sector as an attorney and made out like a bandit, especially with the acuity he and his assistant DA’s had to actually get a conviction on Paul Flores. No body, no weapon, and decades gone. Dan Dow got a conviction, doing so was an expression of the values that the good people of SLO county possess. We don’t leave injured soldiers on the battlefield and neither did Dan Dow. Kristen Smart and her family can finally have some peace. Going after Paul Flores was a huge gamble. I’m no lawyer (or writer), but I think Paul Flores couldn’t be tried for the same crime twice, right? If Dan Dow failed, Paul Flores could continue slipping micky’s into the drinks of women in LA, as he was later convicted of doing. Further, Dan Dow would have looked like a fool. The world knows SLO cares, we don’t let students get murdered here in SLO and not hold their perpetrators accountable. Every time I passed by that large billboard in AG with Kirstin Smart on it, it did nothing but make me angry knowing that someone in our community got away, scot free, with murder. What The Shredder would have had Dan Dow do was to just look the other way and ignore the rights of victims. What The Shredder would have done is waste our tax dollars defending the rights of boutique identitarians, and why? Because members of the left hate God and hate morality. What they don’t understand is that secularism is a type of religion and has just as many zealots as does organized religion. The Shredder is this town’s self-appointed high priest of secularism. Dan Dow is no religious zealot. What he is and what I had the honor of hearing him speak of at Charlie Kirk’s memorial, is a person aware of his own mortality, the brevity of life, and the importance of using this gift given to us by God called “life,” to do something more important than seek our own interests. He exhorted the students and people in attendance to basically question authority. For students, it may have been their professors, and why not, hardly a day goes by where one isn’t arrested for domestic (left wing) terrorism. For others, it was basic science, what makes a man and what makes a woman. As the son of a now deceased butch dyke, I’m not threatened by traditional marriage. If someone in the LBTQ community wants to marry someone of the same sex, simply move to a state where it is legal, the same with reproductive rights. No one is saying you can’t do any of that, just don’t expect the federal government to intercede in areas best left to individual states to decide. I for one, have seen (and experienced from a child’s perspective) the worst in heterosexual marriages. If a same sex attracted person wants to partake in that institution go for it, just do it in a state that allows it and don’t shove your belief system down my throat.
The Shredder’s dream would be to have a Chesa Boudin type figure as our DA. This is the person who served a whopping two and half years before being recalled as the DA in San Francisco. Why? In an effort to appease soft-on-crime types, like The Shredder, San Francisco imploded. Is that what we want here in SLO? If anyone deserves to be reelected here, it would be Dan Dow. If anything, Shredder, he needs to be tougher on crime. Go after white collar crooks like the farmers employing illegal aliens around here and dodging the taxes they should be paying so that we could have better public services. Go after all the incestuous activity between the local chapter of the Democratic party and city officials, otherwise known as a system of patronage. Become like FDR and go after our version of Tammany Hall, raid the Democratic party headquarters. Go after all the illegal cannabis growers destroying the profitability of honest, taxed and regulated, dispensaries. Fly helicopters over everyone’s backyards and rural areas. It took decades to legalize cannabis. I saw my late father get removed from our VW van and arrested by law enforcement in Big Sur in the 70’s, all from a pot seed. All these illegal cannabis growers are destroying the investment involved in operating legally. These backyard growers might as well be rum runners during the prohibition era, operating whiskey stills in their backyards. Our government needs every tax dollar it can and all I see are cheats. Mr. Dow, become Elliot Ness. Go after street gangs and drug cartels too. Clean our country up. We are on the verge of becoming a failed state and live in very dangerous times. The Shredder has simply lived a charmed life, having never become a crime victim, risked his life for his country, or become half the man Dan Dow is. Perhaps The Shredder’s animosity comes from his own jealousy. I’m not afraid to say it, I wish I was a full bird colonel (as Dan Dow is). I wish I was an attorney, let alone a DA (as Dan Dow is). I wish I could say I gave my entire life to this country (as Dan Dow has). I wish I could say that I successfully prosecuted Kirsten Smart’s murderer (as Dan Dow has). What about you, Shredder? WTF have you done for anyone other than yourself?
Dow is sounding more like Trump. Wonder if he’s on the list?
Boy you put a lot into that comment. Some things you said made sense, but you’re summarizing and assessments of Shredder’s alleged beliefs or actions, leave a lot to be desired. For one you can’t speak for anyone else. And since you don’t know shredder personally, in that you don’t know that shredder may well be a woman, at times, and may be a man at others, then it is beyond you or your abilities or insights, to be judging shredder. “Judge yourself, that you be not judged…Because whatsoever judgment…”
Diana:
SLO is a small town, what makes you think I, and many others, actually do know who The Shredder is?
“…summarizing and assessments of Shredder’s alleged beliefs or actions,..” If you have read any of The Shredder’s recent rants, it’s quite obvious where The Shredder’s concerns lay. It lays with a tiny vocal and boutique group of identitarians, not with working American men and women (if there’s actually any left).
Diana:
SLO is a small town, what makes you think I, and many others, actually don’t know who The Shredder is?
“…summarizing and assessments of Shredder’s alleged beliefs or actions,..” If you have read any of The Shredder’s recent rants, it’s quite obvious where The Shredder’s concerns lay. It lays with a tiny vocal and boutique group of identitarians, not with working American men and women (if there’s actually any left).
Diana:
Why are you so focused on The Shredder’s gender? Who cares?